COMMUNITY FORUM

Cracked grout

My husband and I have just put down a ceramic floor, over linoleum 95% of the floor is fine but there are 5 tile that the grout keep cracking on, we have taken them up twice and replaced the grout up they keep cracking. any suggestion on how to fix this problem would be most helpful.

This is one of the problems that comes from setting ceramic tile over vinyl. If the vinyl is cushioned you can expect the rest of the floor to follow suit unless you get just plain lucky (with that kind of luck I'd definitely fo play the lottery) It could also be that the underlayment under the vinyl is too soft in one area causing the floor to flex. The movement first shows up at the weakest spot, the grout line. If nothing is done to correct it the tiles there will come loose and crack next. You may have to take up the tile in that area and drive some screws down into the subfloor to see if it can be tightened up enough to save the floor. Only time will tell

If you can see the underside of the floor from a basement or crawl space maybe you can identify the area and what is causing the problem. Try to put some extra bracing on the underside of the floor in that area. Maybe you will get lucky patching it that way.